Ahmadiyyas of Jyotindranagar in Satkhira, still smarting from the shock of Sunday’s attack, came under renewed threat yesterday when religious zealots asked the Satkhira superintendent of police (SP) to re-hang within a week the signboard removed from the wall of the sect’s complex.

“Otherwise, we ourselves will hang the signboard, if necessary, by sacrificing our lives,” threatened International Khatme Nabuwat Movement, Bangladesh (IKNMB), believed to be run by leaders of key ruling coalition partner Jamaat-e-Islami, in a statement circulated in Jyotindranagar last night.

The threats followed a meeting where people from all hues vowed to keep peace in the area.

The IKNMB leaders also threatened local journalists with dire consequences for running a series of reports on their organisation and termed those false and baseless.

They asked the journalists ‘not to support the Ahmadiyyas’, saying: “Otherwise, Touhidi Janata (believers in one God) will teach you a good lesson.”

The zealots Tuesday morning also kidnapped Faruk Hossain Bulbul, a member of the Ahmadiyya community who works with the Ahmadiyya headquarters in Dhaka, from Bhetkhali in Jyotindranagar under Shyamnagar upazila. Police rescued Bulbul from the house of a leader of the zealots yesterday afternoon.

The IKNMB activists on Sunday attacked and wounded at least 50 Ahmadiyyas, including women and children, robbed 10 Ahmadiyya houses and hung a signboard at the local Ahmadiyya complex that advised Muslims not to mistake the place for a mosque and read: ‘This is a place of worship for the Ahmadiyya community, Sundarban Bazar’.

The Ahmadiyyas pulled down the signboard the same night.

People of all walks of life including the Ahmadiyya sect, meanwhile, vowed to keep peace in the area at a meeting held yesterday at Sundarban High School ground. Shyamnagar Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Solaiman Mondol chaired the meeting.

COMMITTEE FORMED TO KEEP PEACE

A 13-member committee was also formed with Munshiganj Union Parishad and BNP President Jaber Morol as its head to maintain law and order in the area.

Shyamnagar UNO Solaiman Mondol told The Daily Star yesterday, “A peaceful situation has been prevailing here since the meeting and no untoward incident has been reported until 6:00pm today.”

In separate press releases, the organisations demanded arrest and punishment of the religious bigots, who on Sunday also assaulted women and children of the Ahmadiyya community.

The women and rights organisations also asked the government to provide the injured Ahmadiyyas with proper treatment. They demanded necessary steps to prevent the zealots from carrying out such attacks in the future.